Digital audio broadcasting (DAB) is a medium for providing digital-quality audio, superior to existing analog broadcasting formats. AM in-band, on-channel (IBOC) DAB can be transmitted in a hybrid format where a digitally modulated signal coexists with the AM signal, or it can be transmitted in an all-digital format where the removal of the analog signal enables improved digital coverage with reduced interference. The hybrid format allows existing receivers to continue to receive the AM signal while allowing new IBOC receivers to decode the DAB signal. IBOC DAB requires no new spectral allocations because each DAB signal is simultaneously transmitted within the spectral mask of an existing AM channel allocation. IBOC DAB promotes economy of spectrum while enabling broadcasters to supply digital quality audio to their present base of listeners.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,588,022 teaches a method for simultaneously broadcasting analog and digital signals in a standard AM broadcasting channel. The DAB signal comprises an amplitude modulated radio frequency signal including a first subcarrier modulated by an analog program signal and having a first frequency spectrum, and a plurality of digitally modulated subcarrier signals that are broadcast within a bandwidth that encompasses the first frequency spectrum. The digitally modulated subcarrier signals are modulated by a digital program signal. A first group of the digitally modulated subcarrier signals lies within the first frequency spectrum and is modulated in quadrature with the first subcarrier signal. Second and third groups of the digitally modulated subcarrier signals lie outside of the first frequency spectrum and are modulated both in-phase and in-quadrature with the first subcarrier signal. U.S. Pat. No. 6,243,424 discloses another embodiment of an AM Digital Audio Broadcasting system.
A method and apparatus for forward error correction coding for an AM in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital audio broadcasting (DAB) system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,523,147, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference. A digital audio broadcasting method using puncturable convolutional code is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,108,810 and 6,345,377, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
The present invention seeks to provide an AM IBOC DAB signal that can accommodate various interference scenarios as well as transmitters and receivers that utilize the signal.